Gwent Police officer denies sexually assaulting detainees

A GWENT police officer had sex with a suspect while on duty and sexually assaulted two other women, Cardiff Crown Court heard today.

Sergeant Richard Evans, 47, denies two counts of misconduct in public office and three counts of sexual assault, relating to three separate women between 2003 and 2013.

Evans, of The Highway in New Inn, Pontypool, allegedly had sex with a woman after she was brought into custody at Ystrad Mynach police station.

She asked for a drink and Evans took her to a room with a sink, prosecutor Robert Philpotts told the jury.

"As she filled her cup with water from the tap this defendant approached her from behind,"Mr Philpotts said.

He said the defendant then had sex with her.

Three years earlier, he had offered the same woman a lift home in the police van he was driving, Mr Philpotts said.

When they were close to the destination he pulled up and asked the woman to sit in the back of the van with him.

She did so and he began to kiss and touch her but she decided she did not want to go further so they parted.

Mr Philpotts said the woman consented on both occasions, but said both alleged incidents constituted misconduct in public office.

Another woman alleged Evans made inappropriate remarks to her after she was arrested in 2013. While out in the exercise yard of Ystrad Mynach police station he asked her about her tongue piercing, discussing what it would be like to receive oral sex from her, Mr Philpotts said.

He claimed Evans talked about his own intimate piercing with her.

Later that night Mr Philpotts said the woman wrapped herself in a blanket over her bra in her cell after being sick on her top and Evans offered to get her a new T-shirt from the store cupboard.

But he said when Evans returned he removed the blanket from her without her consent, saying he wanted to look at a tattoo she had.

He said: "She did not consent, still less welcome, the removal of that blanket when she was only wearing a brassiere on her top half."

Later in the month the woman was arrested again and again felt uncomfortable around Evans, she said.

Giving evidence, the woman said she felt uneasy and “not nice at all” when Evans allegedly started a sexual conversation about piercings with her.

Regarding the alleged sexual assault she said: “I didn’t want Mr Evans to see me in just my bra. He was looking towards my breasts. I felt very uneasy. I didn’t say anything – I didn’t know what to say at the time.”

She said she spoke out after seeing Evans behaviour to another female suspect: “He was staring at this young girl’s chest. That’s when I thought I had to open my mouth.”

Two charges of sexual assault relate to this third complainant, who felt Evans was “having a conversation with her chest” after she was told to remove her hoodie for safety reasons, Mr Philpotts said.

He offered to get her a T-shirt and when he returned helped her put on the garment, the prosecution claimed.

“He ran his hands down her body from her armpits to her hips, touching the sides of her breasts as he did so.”

Having left the storeroom the defendant took [the woman] to another area where he again, the prosecution say, assaulted her sexually, this time by taking hold of her hips and by putting his tongue into her mouth.”